August 11, 2005

The XP Media Center PC Experience

This is the first in a series on experiences using and enhancing Windows XP Media Center for home theater.

When I needed to upgrade my home office PC earlier this year, I chose to buy a Media Center PC because of the endless testing possibilities it offers. At the time, the Orb service, which lets you stream content from your PC to any Internet connected device, only worked on Media Center PCs (it still requires a PC with a TV tuner card to be compelling). Media Center extenders require a Media Center PC as a hub (though I currently use an omnifi streaming media player, which will work on any Windows XP PC). And previous experience showed that Microsoft's 10 foot user interface was the most functional and elegant solution on the market.

The Media Center PC I purchased, HP's 1095c, comes in a full sized vertical case, not a living room friendly horizontal case. It would not fit in well with a living room based on noise, either - a fan is constantly running. The box came preloaded with XP Windows Media Center 2003; a coupon was provided for an upgrade to the much-improved 2005 version. The upgrade process was relatively smooth and uneventful, but required a tremendous number of stops and starts and restarts (installation babysitting).

Since then, I have had only one area of difficulty - burning recorded TV content to DVD. For whatever reason, Media Center appears to think that the DVD recording drivers are not installed, and gives me error messages. Loading third party tools - such as Roxio's excellent Easy Media Creator 7.5 did not help (despite coming with its own DVD burning engine). I also had trouble simply opening up the recorded TV folder within Easy Media Creator 7.5; the program routinely crashed. Roxio assures me that they're working on identifying and fixing Media Center glitches in future versions of the software.

As a PC, the XP Media Center is an able performer - fast, and versatile. I have not tried any hard core gaming or graphics tests, but I have done video editing on it using Adobe's Premier Elements software. As a home theater component, it is somewhat lacking, largely due to the limited screen size (currently a 19" Samsung LCD). Audio is not a problem: I have hooked up both Klipsch's 5.1 THX ProMedia speakers and Logitech's latest Z-5500 THX 5.1 speaker systems (separate review coming soon).

I was actually most surprised by its capabilities as a "media center." This was unexpected, as I have reviewed XP Media Centers several times before, as dedicated home theater components in our basement (several early HP iterations of XP Media Center), and as "stereo cabinet replacements" in our living room (Gateway's sadly deceased but not forgotten 610 system). I'm certainly familiar with the basic functionality. But I found myself using the system far more than I anticipated - in full 10 foot Media Center user interface mode - while working five feet away on my corporate notebook. I find myself taking work breaks by watching pieces of The Simpsons, skipping through commercials and large chunks of the programming at will. The Media Center is jukebox central, with playlists culled from (legal) downloads and several hundred CD's burned to the hard drive. I also queue up FM radio stations and skip through commercials (if the station has been "paused") or simply bounce around among multiple choices.

Finally, to control all this from the other desk, I have one of two choices always at hand. One is obvious: the Media Center's infrared remote. But I also use Logitech's Bluetooth DiNovo keyboard, which splits out the numeric keybad on a separate unit. The satellite keypad contains several useful items, including a full calculator, notification of new email messages, and media control. I keep the QWERTY section of the keyboard in front of the Media Center (with the mouse next to it in my undersized keyboard tray), and the satellite section on the other desk next to my notebook as a remote control/information center/calculator. The DiNovo is expensive, and was intended to be a statement of style. However, the form factor and flexibility makes the price tag justifiable without aesthetic considerations.

Comments

I have the HP m1160n Media Center and ever since i got it it constantly glitches when playing movies on my 48" Mitsubishi wide screen TV.It drives my wife nuts but for the most part I love all its other functions. Is there a fix for the video skipping intermediately?
It is never at the same place twice that it skips